Colombia FARC rebels celebrate historic disarmament

(AFP) – Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel force celebrates its disarmament on Tuesday after half a century of war against the state, ending Latin America’s oldest civil conflict.

FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, alias Timochenko, is scheduled to formally conclude the disarmament process at a ceremony with President Juan Manuel Santos in the central town of Mesetas at 1500 GMT.

Part of a 2016 peace deal with the FARC, the move is a key part of efforts to end the conflict. But the process has been blighted by ongoing violence involving other armed groups in recent weeks.

– 7,000 weapons –

United Nations monitors said they “have the entirety of the FARC’s registered individual arms stored away,” except for some that were exempted for transitional security at demobilization camps until August 1.

Separately, the UN mission is continuing to extract and destroy other weapons and munitions stashed in remote hiding places which the FARC have identified and surrendered to the monitors.